Gender Roles and Related Work in Guatemala

Walking back from a school this morning, in the center of my town, a guy catcalled me. He made that prolonged kissing noise which I find to be the most disgusting and offensive. I usually ignore them, but not today. Unfortunately my brain doesn't work that quickly in Spanish when I'm angry, but I said something along the lines of: "Excuse me. You shouldn't talk to women like that. You need to respect us." And walked away. Which I don't think is too bad considering I always want to shout back: "has that ever worked for you?!?" This is nothing new for me or my female friends here in Guatemala. I know I will miss it here, but sometimes I am so ready to leave. I know that cat calling happens in the United States, but not with the frequency that it happens here. Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a non-profit I volunteered for in Maine, just posted this picture (below) which I felt was fitting.

Fellow PCVs and I put on a gender conference in the center of Xela. The title of this event was "A Celebration of Women Leaders and the Men whom Support Them." Over 50 Host Country Nationals attended this event to discuss gender themes relevant to Guatemala including: positive masculinity, traditional gender roles and its effects, stigma and discrimination,  gender equity in your work, healthy relationships, and domestic violence. I assisted with the planning and execution of the event as well as a photography activity which prompted participants to showcase why they fight for women's rights.

Responses from top left to bottom right: I fight for women's rights because: they are God's creation, I'm not Machista, we should be respected, I want every one to be able to walk on the street without risk.

On March 7, Peace Corps Guatemala put on the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler in the municipal theater in Xela with 12 volunteers, 16 Guatemalan counterparts, and over 300 people in attendance. The show raised almost $300 for the local non-profit Pies de Occidente (Feet of the West) which is the association for health promotion, research, and education. The monologues were performed in Spanish and two Mayan languages. I had seen a college production once before, but this was my first time participating in the monologues. I participated in the introduction, a group monologue (yes I know that is an oxymoron), and the final dance. The monologues range from funny to happy to sad. There are monologues about orgasms (the sounds of the "different kinds" demonstrated on stage - these can be funny such as: the student where she moans that she should be studying, etc), female genital mutilation and the "happy fact" about the clitoris. 

Here are some of my favorite lines from the introduction (translated into English):

1: There are so many secrets and much mystery around them [vaginas]
2: It is like the bermuda triangle 
3: No one returns from reporting there

...

1: The names we give them [vaginas]  

2: and the names that we don't give them

3: In Xela, they call them papusa.

4: and in Antigua, they call them, but they don't come.

The beautiful theater in Xela

A Mayan woman giving her monologue in Mam (a Mayan dialect)

The cast

The orgasm

In the news this week was a story about a 15-year-old from rural Guatemala whom spoke in front of the U.N. about: "the obstacles girls face in her community and how she and [her friend] persuaded the mayor to implement and fund policies that would help." She said that: "The biggest problems we face as adolescents in my community are early pregnancy, [child]birth, sexual violation and lack of education and health care." Although this girl lives in a different part of the country, I have noticed these similar problems. Guatemala is definitely a male-dominated society and I'm so glad that girls like here don't get discouraged and keep on pushing for what they deserve and are frequently denied. Check out the full article here: 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/03/12/392174520/meet-the-15-year-old-from-rural-guatemala-who-addressed-the-u-n 

Finally, I came across this fun short Buzzfeed video about guys trying on high heels for the first time: 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/caitlincowie/guys-wear-heels-for-the-first-time#.kpx9WzQKOD

Multi-Department Leadership Summer Camp at Laguna Chicabal

The name of the camp was Lideres de mañana - Leaders of tomorrow with the great and fitting quote: "las grandes personas de la historia también fueron niños" "the great people in history were also once children."

Two of my good friends in the Peace Corps took the initiative to put together a huge multi-department leadership summer camp. The camp took place at the beautiful Laguna Chicabal. All volunteers in the Xela/Toto area were invited and each volunteer that participated in the camp brought a Guatemalan work partner and four campers from our sites (two boys and two girls). The camp was four days and three nights. PCVs even took turns patrolling on night duty throughout the night. It was a crazy time but amazingly it all went pretty smoothly. I was exhausted at the end of it all, but I am so glad I participated in it.

Summer camp for kids here in Guatemala is not a thing. Maybe for the affluent in the capital, but out in the rural areas where we all live and work summer is a time for the kids to be at home and probably working. This camp also helped to fill a gap in the educational system. Many girls leave the sixth grade (if they are lucky enough to get to the sixth grade) without knowing what menstruation is or how that relates to their ability to bear children.

Volunteers lead activities on a wide range of topics such as: leadership, the importance of working in a team, a hike to the laguna, self-esteem, nutrition, recycled crafts, decision-making, gender equality, reproductive health, and HIV.  We also did some fun camp activities such as: an ice cream social, movie night, lots of dínamicas and ice breakers, and on the last night we had some fire dancers come in from Xela and put on a show while we roasted marshmallows.

Things that onle seem to happen in Guatemala

Importance of working in a team session

Importance of working in a team session

"Peace on Earth, Peace Corps, Guatemala 2014"

Summer camp wouldn't be complete without s'mores

My HIV Training at the Local Health Center

Ever since I arrived in my site I have wanted to do a training with the local health center. When I first got my Peace Corps nomination, I was told that I was going to go do HIV work in sub-saharan Africa. That's not exactly where I ended up. Working in primary schools with kindergarten through sixth graders I don't get a lot of opportunities to give HIV trainings, although I have given HIV trainings to high school students. I am a Healthy Schools Volunteer and since school is not in session, I have to get a little creative so that I stay busy. So I planned this HIV workshop for everyone who works at the Health Center in my town. This included: doctors, nurses, students, and people doing their practicum. I repeated the same workshop on two different days so that half of the health center staff participated the first day and the other half the second day and the Health Center could remain open.

I started the workshop out with a short quiz to see how much they already knew about HIV and advanced HIV (which is the new term that is replacing AIDS). After that we did the "street talk" activity where I put up posters with the words: penis, arm, testicles, breasts written at the top of each paper and it was their job to go around and write down all of the slang words that are used in place of these words. The point is that there are a lot of slang words for all of the aforementioned words except for arm and how important it is for them as health officials and teachers to use the correct words. It also helps to get people giggling and to open up a little. Up next was the TeachAIDS health education animated tutorial video which is a great resource for teaching about HIV to any age group. I obviously showed the Spanish version. If you have 20 spare minutes and need a refresher on HIV transmission and prevention it's worth a watch. I followed this with the basic information on transmission, prevention, etc. Then we got to the good part. They paired up, picked an activity from the Peace Corps HIV manual, and presented it to the rest of the group. This way they got to see all of the activities in the manual as well as practice presenting the new information. Below are some pictures of the Health Center workers presenting the HIV activities in front of the group.

Condom demonstration

"101 ways to love someone" (without having sex)

Finally I passed out the post-test and diplomas. I am happy to report that there was a great improvement on the test. I was so happy that they agreed to let me do this training. They didn't have to, but they came, were present, and learned!

Diplomas! Yes her name is correctly spelled as Bilma. With a B.

Day 1

Day 2

HIV Trainings with High School Students

When I first got my nomination for the Peace Corps (the first step post-application) I was told that I would be doing HIV/AIDS work in Sub-Saharan Africa. If you know me or have ever read my blog you will know that this is not where I ended up. Yay Guatemala. So they told me to get some experience somehow working with HIV/AIDS. I volunteered for two organizations in the Boston area. My favorite was working at the Boston Living Center where I helped cook and serve lunch to the HIV+ members once a week (they do lunch every day during the week).

Working in the Healthy Schools Project in primary schools has not given me a lot of opportunities to continue in this line of work, but I have collaborated with a number of volunteers to give HIV lessons to high school students. Because sexual education is deeply lacking here and the subject is taboo, we have to be careful about what we say and what we teach. The community members in my friend's site still talk about this past volunteer who showed porn to students (we are fairly certain that they were just trying to teach a health lesson). So we always get permission beforehand and co-facilitate with Guatemalans so that it isn't just us. We also watch what we say and stress abstinence.  

Each time we give the training a little differently, but we usually show an animated informational video and do a white blood cell activity where you have kids act out a story and portray the immune system, different infections, HIV, the human body, etc. We also do SIDA/NODA (determining what activities/things that can transmit the virus), true/false activities, and so on.  

I have done a number of trainings in different schools, but this was the largest at a private school in Xela. It was an all girls school. It was also the nicest looking school that I have been to in Guatemala. 

This was the only time that I have done a condom demonstration. We passed out cards, each with a step of putting on a condom, and the girls had to put them in order and then demonstrate each step. In the first group we got a couple girls to touch the condom, but in all future groups we did it because they were all too embarrassed.

This was the only group of girls that was willing to touch the condom. 

For some reason this hanging photo creeped me out. 

Cooking Classes with Mothers

This past month I completed a cooking class with mothers in two schools. In each school I did the same activity on three days from 9-12 so that I could work with smaller groups. The first day I worked with mothers with children in the 5th and 6th grades, second day with mothers with children in the 4th and 3rd grades, and the third day with mothers with children in the 2nd and 1st grades. Each day about 15-20 mothers showed up. Because large families are common here the majority of the mothers had multiple kids in the school. Therefore, the first day always had the largest turnout and the numbers decreased with each day.

I started out with an hour and a half lesson on nutrition and good kitchen related hygiene. The nutrition part of the class included: the three food groups and "my plate" - which recommends that you divide your plate of food so that 1/2 is covered in protection (fruits and vegetables), 1/4 with body-building (protein), and only 1/4 with energy (carbohydrates). From what I have experienced in this country, meals are not so well balanced. Probably around 3/4 of the plate contains carbohydrates and the other 1/4 with meat or vegetables or more likely beans or an egg. I asked the mothers how many times a week they and their families ate fruits and vegetables. The majority said that they only eat vegetables a couple times a week - once or twice! And not much more frequently for fruits. I was blown away. I don't cook meat here (due to the lack of refrigeration both in my house and with and in the butcher's shops). Therefore, I eat a lot of vegetables (and eggs). I digress. I told them about the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day (which they were shocked by). I know that this isn't reasonable to expect them to eat the recommended number of servings, so I asked them to please try and eat at least one serving a day. Poco a poco (bit by bit).

As for hygiene, I talked about kitchen cleanliness (no cats, dogs, pigs, chickens) wandering around the kitchen. Drinking only purified water (boiling the unclean water that comes out of all taps here for at least 5 minutes). Cleaning fruits and vegetables that aren't going to be thoroughly cooked or peeled (by using bleach). Basic hand washing steps (and not drying their hands on their aprons that they wear all day).

Each day I had a teacher from that school co-facilitate with me. I would explain a section in Spanish and then they would explain it in K'iche'. I was really happy with this set-up because I am still working on improving my Spanish and so it was helpful for the people who understand both languages to get the information twice, and obviously much more clear for those who understand very little Spanish.

Me with my posters and a banana. I gave each mother a banana when
they first arrived as a small morning snack.

You can't see it in this photo, but I drew out pictures of different foods and
each participant had to categorize it into energy, body-building, or protection. 

THE THIRD WOMAN FROM THE LEFT IS TAKING NOTES!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

After the lesson we put it all into practice. We made sautéed beet leaves and pasta with tomato sauce that had protemás (a protein enriched meat substitute), carrots, broccoli, and onions. I supplied all of the ingredients and the mothers brought their own cutting boards, knives, and a couple pieces of firewood. In one school we cooked with my little two burner electric stovetop and in the other school we used their wood burning stove. I like telling Guatemalans about eating beet leaves, because the majority of the people have never thought to use them. They go straight to the rabbits or the pigs. Because of this, a lot of people discard the leaves or leave them at the stand at the market. Therefore, sometimes the vendors give them to me for free or I buy a big bag for just a few Quetzales. 

One thing about Guatemalan culture is that it is very rude to not accept food that you are offered or to not eat everything you are given. This has sometimes been difficult for me, but for these classes it worked out excellently! Everyone ate all of the food! "Would you like some more beet leaves?" "Yes." "Perfect." :)

Passing out the pasta and sauce.
I used styrofoam cups and plastic spoons. This was clearly not an
environmentally friendly workshop. Perhaps this will be the next workshop.

Chopping carrots.

I also had a good number of babies and small children
"participate" in the workshop.

Eating beet leaves for the first time.

Stirring up the beet leaves.

The women seemed to enjoy the class and appeared to have learned new information. At the very least that day they learned a little new information and had 1 serving of fruit, 1 of carbohydrates, 1 of protein, and around 2 of vegetables. Which from what I heard is possibly more fruits and vegetables than they normally eat in a week. They all seemed to genuinely like the food. I would call it a great success!

Youth Forum

This past month I attended a Youth Forum workshop put on by the Peace Corps. This two-day event was centered around understanding the National Curriculum Base in Guatemala and how it relates to the Healthy Schools Project. We also participated in a round robin session where groups taught sample health lessons for the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades.  One key aspect of a "healthy school" is that the teachers teach two twenty minute health lessons each week. From my experience, the vast majority of teachers that haven't worked with healthy schools volunteers don't do this. This is one of the problems with the Healthy Schools Project. It is an initiative of the Guatemalan Government (Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health), however no one seems to know about it if there isn't a Healthy Schools Volunteer working in their school. 

For some Peace Corps trainings we have the opportunity to bring work partners. Below is a picture of me with the two work partners that I brought (teacher on the left, and principal on the right). This is also a good example of how I am considered tall in Guatemala! I definitely don't hate it :). Guatemalans love diplomas. I have received so many from various trainings here and have also made many of my own to give to participants of my trainings. 

There are a variety of locations that Peace Corps holds trainings, but this one was by far the coolest. It looked like a little hipster recycled fairy village.

Toothbrushing Charla with Parents

My favorite is the little boy in the front holding up his new homemade toothbrush

Part of my job as a Healthy Schools Volunteer is to work with parents' groups. If I can get kids to wash their hands and brush their teeth in schools that will be amazing, but if I can get them to do it at home as well that will be even better. I haven't worked in a school in the States, but I imagine that the involvement of parents (mostly mothers) here is much greater. Each school has a rotation of all of the mothers who make snack for the kids every day. This means that every day about 5 mothers come to school to make the snack. I find this amazing. I think it might have to do with the fact that a lot of the mothers work out of the home caring for the kids or work in informal jobs (i.e. a little store that sells snacks, soda, etc. out of their home).

Also my schools are willing to give me time at their almost monthly parents' meetings to give a talk on health subjects. They also will call all of the parents there when I have a charla (lesson) to give them. So far I have given talks to parents on basic hygiene practices such as hand washing and toothbrushing. There is usually a good turnout, too! The talks that I have given usually about 60 parents (again mostly mothers), which is the majority. Most of the parents have multiple kids in the school. Big families are still the norm here. 

Presenting to parents is not without it's challenges. In the area that I live, all of the parents speak K'iche' the local Mayan language and if I am lucky about half of them also speak Spanish. Therefore I have to have someone translate my Spanish into K'iche' for me. There is also a very high rate of illiteracy among the parents. I am used to presenting with powerpoints and poster papers with limited words, but I have had to become creative with finding ways to demonstrate and explain using pictures. The sign in sheets are another potential issue. With illiterate parents they cannot write their names so I bring along an ink pad so they can put their thumbprint instead. 

Here are some pictures from one of my toothbrushing charlas. In my talk I taught them how to make homemade toothpaste and toothbrushes. I had each person make a homemade toothbrush. This is where you take a little stick like a tongue depresser, wrap a small piece of cloth around it, and tie it on both ends with dental floss. The toothpaste is made out of baking soda, salt, and water. Once they were completed I then had them all go outside and brush their teeth using the homemade toothbrush and toothpaste. 

Getting homemade toothpaste (not going to lie it tastes really bad)

Yes, that child on the floor is eating junk food